Before their trip, European leaders published a joint declaration which followed the renewed call of the American president Donald Trump so that Russia accepts a truce of 30 days, allowing a period of negotiations, or faces “other sanctions” of the “United States and its partners”. It is not clear if Trump was invited to register for the joint declaration, although Putin’s criticism contained in this is considerably further than anything that the American president said.
“We, the leaders of France, Germany, Poland the United Kingdom will stay in kyiv in solidarity with Ukraine against the barbaric and illegal invasion on a large scale,” said the four European leaders in their declaration. “We reiterate our support for President Trump’s calls to a peace agreement and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to ensure lasting peace.
“Alongside the United States, we call on Russia to agree on a full and unconditional ceasefire of 30 days to create space for discussions on just and lasting peace.”
The leaders said that they were ready to support the negotiations “as soon as possible”, in particular to discuss the “technical implementation” of the ceasefire.
“We are clear that blood effusion must end, Russia must stop its illegal invasion and Ukraine must be able to thrive as a safe, secure and sovereign nation within its internationally recognized borders for future generations,” they said. “We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine. Until Russia accepts a lasting ceasefire, we will increase the pressure on the Russian war machine. ”
The visit on Saturday is the first time that the leaders of the four countries have visited Ukraine – and the first trip from Merz to kyiv since his entry into office as German Chancellor earlier this week.
After having visited commemorative monuments to the victims of war and exercised talks with Zelenskyy, the quartet should join counterparts from other countries in a video call to discuss the progress of the so -called “coalition of the will” – the nations which proposed to contribute to a form of peacekeeping initiative.
A declaration by the Starmer office described the initiative as “a future coalition of an air, land, maritime and regeneration force which would help to regenerate the armed forces of Ukraine after any peace agreement and strengthen confidence in any future peace.”
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